1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to instrument keyboards and more specifically to a modified musical instrument keyboard such as a piano keyboard or synthesizer keyboard.
2. Description of Related Art
Keyboards for keyboard instruments have been known for several centuries and have remained unmodified to a large extent over many years. Several attempts at modifying the typical keyboard, such as for the piano or organ, have been made but have met with limited success. This is due in part to the radical nature of the innovation and to the momentum developed in the use of traditional keyboard arrangements.
House, U.S. Pat. No. 2,097,280, teaches a musical instrument and keyboard for obtaining an increased range of tonality or better musical expression over previous instruments. Each of the six whole tone intervals of an octave is divided into intervals of thirds of a tone, thereby providing a new octavecouple, or 18-interval, scale for the octave instead of the duodecouple scale. This is accomplished by rearranging the piano keyboard to provide a series of white keys, a series of first black keys oriented between each white key, each first black key raised above each white key, and an additional series of second black keys at the same height as each first black key and immediately to the right of each first black key. Each additional black key is positioned immediately before the next adjacent white key. As a result of this arrangement, all keys are assigned a new or different tone than was originally assigned to the respective white and black keys of the original piano. Additionally, the second black keys are placed at a level equal to the level of the first black keys and therefore are difficult to strike without striking an adjacent black key.
Barnett, U.S. Pat. No. 1,958,227, shows a modified piano keyboard wherein two additional keys have been added to the five original black keys to form an unbroken arrangement of black keys.
Other arrangements include the addition of a keyboard entirely separate from the original keyboard with a similar arrangement of keys, similar to a two manual organ. Such arrangements are shown in Stoehr, U.S. Pat. No. 1,775,330, Hak, U.S. Pat. No. 3,915,050, Barth, U.S. Pat. No. 1,815,228, Forster, U.S. Pat. No. 1,603,676, and Hans, U.S. Pat. No. 1,421,464. Another arrangement is shown in Young, U.S. Pat. No. 2,706,926. These arrangements are difficult to use by one trained in playing the traditional keyboard. Rosberger, U.S. Pat. No. 3,200,689, shows another example of such a keyboard. These arrangements are often twice as difficult to manufacture and tune as a result of the doubling of the number of keys on the instrument.